Hardtail Vise Ep. 23: Machining & Assembly Finale 

I can’t speak for other viewers, but a big reason I’ve watched your videos for many years now is not just the enjoyment of watching chips fly, but of equal enjoyment is seeing how you approach a project, your plan, and how you attack issues that might arise, using your own years of experience combined with the training from your father and grandfather. This video really brought all that to light. Not to mention the wisdom we can all use of simply stepping away sometimes!

I greatly respect the way you expressed your frustration in such a calm and controlled manner. It was clear that in the moment you were frustrated but you kept your cool and it was also clear this wasn't the "second take" - we learned right along with you. But you showed what being a real professional looks like. Just one more example of how you are an absolute master of your craft. Thanks so much for sharing this amazing build with us, I really appreciate it!

Changing the original swivel handle bolts to a hex bolt and wrench could potentially crack the swivel base casting. The nut is wedged shape and requires very little torque to bind the base. This is why the handle on the original bolt is short.

As a old tool and die maker and have used all types of manual machines I have enjoyed watching the series. The setups for building this vice were great. Most people do not know how things are made. Over the years as a tool and die maker I could look at almost anything and know how many operations I would take to build a injection mold to stage dies. There's nothing in your home that was not made by a tool, die, mold or fixtures. NOTHING.

2 Abom videos in one night, damn you are spoiling us tonight Adam, Thanks for the Finale!

Knowing when to step away is the key ! EVERYTHING BECOMES MUCH CLEARER

I guess the highlight of everything besides the precision job, is your pride LOGO. Adam, you are just fantastic. May you live long.

So it doesn't matter how precise your measurements and calculations were, final fitment is still eye-balled :)

Man that was a case study in body language if there ever was one. Great work! I was actually sweating right along with you.

"Sometimes you get ahead of yourself. You don't quite think everything through" No truer words were ever spoken! Nice work Adam, congratulations you earned it!

Nobody ever learned anything without making a mistake. It’s not whether we make mistakes, it’s how we figure out how to fix them. You should be proud of this project. As you were assembling it I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the shaper marks were on the body portion. Nice work my friend. Thanks for inviting us along for the ride.

I must subconsciously really want a good vice, Ive been watching this series and Tom's Oxtools Baby Bullet series again this week. I am so ready to start setting up a home shop

You know what might help is an ENDOSCOPE. They have a flexable lead to the camera, and you vould put it anywhere, and get clearance. Then the controller has a nice color monitor to put anywhere, so you can see what is going on. I have one, and it is very handy for a lot of things.

Fantastic job Adam! Truly enjoyed every minute. Use the vice in good health for many years to come. Congrats on meeting and exceeding all the challenges.

That is the nicest most accurate fitting cast iron vise ive ever seen-!! Way to go Adam, you were fighting your well known love for your well known desire for a machinists fit--!! I can imagine how good it felt the moment you smiled, total satisfaction for all the tedious work. Now Im concerned the fit is so accurate it may only move at certain temperature ranges--LOL

Walking away is one of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned, and I need to practice it more.

Adam: in the gunsmith trade we use DYKEM or some other such marking material to see where metal is engaging when we're fitting things like bolts to actions. That sort of thing might work for your application too when you're working on tight fitments. We use ever finer lapping compound for the metal removal; the DYKEM is just a marker

Beautiful job Adam.

Amen Bro! Amazing how walking away for a while makes big difference!

Such a special vise deserves nothing less than powder coat! Put it on nice and thick, nothing is more durable or looks better!

Adam I am very impressed. It is great to see your behaviour when you are totally pissed that things aren't going well. I am also so happy that you show us the glitches as well as the successes.

Abomb, the clearance tolerances are so close I would be worried that some filings or shavings get stuck in there they would cause you binding problems in the future no? Yeah that aboy, more clearance 👍

Mr Booth That smile you had when you finally assembled the Hardtail said it all. That thing is a work of art. Keep it up buddy, I really enjoy your work. You are so meticulous with every movement.

Enjoyed every episode.The smile on your face started as soon as you cranked the screw....it must feel right. Machines, computers and cell phones will always be replaced with something newer and better. This vice is a timeless basic tool like an anvil....it will never be outdated and passed from owner to owner for hundreds of years.

Thanks Adam. I want to see it all greased up! Great series!

I like that you show the less glamorous sides of machining. Having to take a step back and contemplate the next move is not a bad thing. Thinking with a level head will result in a much better outcome than thinking while upset. Thanks, Adam.

Thank you both for a wonderful Sunday morning viewing. That vise is brilliant cheers from down under. 👍🍻🇦🇺👍

Got to get the back end of that hardtail vice painted and pinstriped. Fitting since this thing is basically the hotrod of vices. Really enjoyed the progress on this one!

''Hello ADAM: I'm always happy when I've successfully completed a project. I'm retired now and have more time for my hobbies. I come from large-scale mechanical engineering. Turbines and paper machines. I'll follow I've been on your channel for a long time and I'm also enthusiastic about old measuring equipment and old machines. I was also very involved in the construction of the turbine runners for the Three Gorges Dam in China. I wish you many more beautiful projects and great videos.''👍👍👍

Thank you Adam and Abby for sharing this project. I have enjoyed following along and learned a bunch. Great job!

I fully shared your satisfaction of the final assembly. Felt every moment. Not everyone gets to experience the coming together of so much effort into a beautiful functional final product but man it's just amazing. Thanks for this series. 🙏

Nice work Adam. Thanks for spending the time on and off camera to share this with us. It was enjoyable watching all of the machining work that went into this one of a kind video series. Thanks to Jason at Fireball Tool and everybody else behind the scenes for helping, too.

Excellent job. Have watched all 23 videos beautiful work. Something to be very proud of. Will stay in your family for generations to come. Great camera work by Abbey 👍👍👍 Take care Regards NSW. AUSTRALIA

Congratulations...Thanks for sharing your Hardtail Vise build.

“I’ve had about enough of it for tonight….” That’s some wisdom right there.

As is tradition. When you have a hammer, all the world is a nail. When you have a machinist, all the world is whatever you want it to be.

Love the final result, Adam. Looking forward to seeing the color(s) you choose. It was nearly an emotional event seeing the vice come together fully for the first time. You have machined a vice which will last for generations. My hat is off to Jason and his team, the foundry workers in Spokane, and to you for machining this fully functional work of art. Personally, I recommend you engrave some of your information into the vice somewhere. 100 years from now, you vice will be used by someone and they'll be thoroughly impressed with its tightness and precision. And yes, they'll likely use a sledge hammer with it, but it will be okay, because it will fulfill its purpose admirably. 😉 One note for my fellow viewers: • This series series is a great example of the difference between custom work and mass-produced work. Custom work can be tweaked, fine tuned, and built to tighter tolerances, but every piece will not fit properly with every other piece on a different object because of the potentially tighter tolerances. Mass-produced work will, by design, have looser tolerances so that any piece can fit to any other piece that comes off the line. That doesn't make mass-produced products inferior; it's just a part of mass-production. If Adam were to take the cost of the raw castings and add in his expenses for custom machining, this vice would likely cost $10.000+. Jason over at Fireball sells the Taiwanese version, finished and ready to go, for about $1,600. And they will outlast all of us. I don't know the anticipated cost of the U.S.A. version, but I can assure you it will be less than $10,000+. And it's worth every penny if you need such a robust vice.

Adam, I think if it were me I would do something about the finish on the tail. I can see those grind marks from across the room. All the rest looks quite impressive.

Thanks for sharing this journey, I wouldn't had known how to start on a raw casting. Also utilizing new and old tools,showing frustration when things didn't quite go the way you wanted and troubleshooting to fix. Dad and gramps would be proud.

never seen a vise that had to be assembled using a chain fall nice job I'll get one when I win the lottery

YES 🙌👍👏 !!! That’s the most biggest, strongest, vice, I’ve ever seen, clearance is your friend, that’s going to be a work horse, go to vice for the biggest of big jobs !👍

What a great project. All the different tools and setups made for an interesting and informative series. Looking forward to the spin-offs (jaws and lead-screw).

Adam; hell of a nice vice project! I’m guessing that my cost from the hours you have put in, would be around $20,000. It’s been great fun!

Excellent Adam. You should be proud of your achievement and boy, what a thing to own!

Great series. Loved every minute of it. The logo is fantastic.

Excellent build! It is great to see your pride in building the vice. It has to feel like conquering the world. If you run into a similar situation when fitting a sliding fit between two large components, try bluing one of the components and see where contact is being made. This is done in large gearboxes and with large propellers. We even blued the tapered bolts used for joining line shafts to check the fit.

You need to mill the sides of your hard tail housing and etch your logo there.

That vise, would be nice for the Coyote to drop it on the Road Runner, this time he may get him.

I want my Fireball Hardtail to be finished by ABom79. You and Jason have done a great thing.

THAT is one MONSTER vise! Hearty congratulations on beautifully machined tool! It looks stunning!

Adam, this series has been great. Watching a master problem solve is a joy.

That big smile says a lot on how proud you are of the final product you made. Well done ,, epic craftsmanship as usual. ❤❤👍👍

I enjoyed seeing you smile, you should do that more often. Thanks for teaching us.

Hi Adam, I usually don't comment, but , Thank you and Abby, even Jason at Fireball tools. I have been watching this "series" and to see a project finally come to the near conclusion, gives me great satisfaction. Possibly even motivation to finish some of the tens of projects that I have been working on for a while. I am willing to bet you are the only person in the world that has a Hardtail vise with such precision. Love the videos, and content. Love and GOD Bless.

Thoroughly enjoyed the project so far, and this is a great finale (for now)! I feel like you not only got to show many different types of machining but also many aspects of who you are as well ❤️ As always, thanks for sharing

Thanks for "taking a break". It's somtging, as craftsmen we all have to remember, however I'm not making this statement because of me. My kids are not patient enough to watch this video but as I teach them..... I have to remember it "take a break" and show them that I'm taking a break. Currently my youngest son just did a v8 swap on an old chevy pickup and has been struggling getting it to run right. I'm not stepping in too much cuz I want him to learn and also not be ashamed to ask questions but I've found myself getting into a panic with him when things go south. This was a great reminder and a visualization of...... take a break. The problem will still be there tomorrow but you will have thought about it and be in a better place to fix it. Thank you for showing that and I'm going to refer my son to this videao.

It's the dark that allows us to appreciate the light. Well done Adam!

Love that smile. That's a sense of accomplishment and well deserved.

Dude! I'm as proud of that thing as you are. Nice!

Mixed emotions! Thrilled with the finale and end product but very sad that this journey with you has now finished. Perhaps that’s just evidence of how invested in your projects that your viewers are. Exceptional and you are well justified if you’re feeling very proud. Congratulations.

Hallo ADAM: Ich freue mich auch immer wenn ich ein Projekt erfolgreich fertiggestellt habe.Bin jetzt in Rente und habe dadurch mehr Zeit für meine Hobbys.Komme aus dem Großmaschinenbau.Turbinen und Papiermaschinen.Vieleicht findest Du jemanden der Dir den Kommentar übersetzt.Ich folge Dir schon lange auf deinem Kanal und bin ebenfalls begeistert von alten Messmitteln und alten Maschinen.War auch beim Bau der Turbinenlaufräder für den Dreischluchten-Staudamm in China voll dabei.Ich wünsche Dir noch viele schöne Projekte und tolle Videos.👍👍👍

Thanks for sharing the difficulties with the fit on this one. Taking a step back either to sleep on it or at least stop and have a cup of tea ( in the UK) so often helps

To see the joy of your face at the end is worth the journey itself. I love your determination to make it exactly the way your mind sees it. Yes, this was a very good project to follow you through and I truly enjoyed every process.

I like a spring detent to center the handle. It makes it much faster to open and close.

About 10 minutes into this video, my father, of Blessed Memory, would have quipped: "If you put a little fur around it, you'll hit it way easier...."... lol. Thank you so much for this, one of your best videos!!!

Great series. This truly shows the work to machine a tool to someone who is new to this work.

Great job on the vise, but you need more bearing area under the front of that moveable jaw, those two side strips are not enough, a lot of wear and tear there on any vise. Perhaps a brass insert in that middle area, to support the full surface of the moveable jaw.

I’ll just say this, the calm and measure with which you go from step to step, nothing fancy, just precision, patience, and the occasional break (and maybe a few choice words we don’t hear)… It was meditative and kinda cleansing to watch. And the smile - not when it first slid into place, but when you got the whole thing together for the first time - that smile lit up my quiet evening. It’s why I gravitate back to your channel again and again, and it’s crossed my mind more than once that working with you is probably pretty great 🤙🏽 Happy Easter and all the best for the spring, thanks for your work :)

Nice job, looks fantastic Adam.

His smile like Chunk getting a Baby Ruth candy bar , from the movie Goonies

Loved this build series!! Thanks for sharing.

That is an heirloom tool man, something a guy could be proud to pass down to his kids.

Hard to believe it has been 23 episodes to do all the work on this vise. Thanks for taking the time to video it all, it's been great to watch it all come together.

Magnificent piece of machinery! What an awesome project. Congrats on that massive grin at the end.

Two full episodes in a day? sounds like a nice plan to me. Cheers Adam!

We did it. What a great project. I also feel proud for following the process of creating a considerably above-the-normal or average piece of equipment of this kind. It is well-made and is considered a unique tool. Congratulations.

Thanks for sharing this amazing project Adam!

Nice to see this project done.

Your smile says it all Adam. Thanks for letting us watch you having fun and learning from you along the way.

Thanks so much for doing this project, it really was interesting and taught me a lot about what machining these sorts of things entails. You probably have one of, if not the very best, vises in the world now. That said: I can't wait for the painting!

❤Excellent job done 😊

fantastic work Adam. I've enjoyed every minutes with you in the shop working on this. Thank you for sharing the wonderful series.

The smile was perfect, you made Jason very proud, a beautiful piece of work.

Well done! Enjoyed it all, thanks for documenting this build in such detail. And two thumbs up for that fine lady behind the camera. :)

Adam, You are damned right, machining castings with out fixtures is very difficult, and each one is custom fitted by necessity. It's been over 40 years since I machined castings from scratch, with out fixtures. Making the fixtures for the machining was another nightmare. And these were only brass sprinkler castings !!! Much less something this complex. Congratulations, You are the master !!! Tim

Need to make a broach if there's going to be any more of these.

Such a solemn moment when something you worked so long and hard on comes together as a finished project.

Followed the whole project. Well done, Adam. I have to say that I enjoy these longer multi-part series.

Awesome job Adam! This has been a fascinating series seeing all of the different machine ops and setups. You are truly a Master of your craft.

We always strive for perfection but some things don’t have to be perfect, like a vise

I’m sure you already know this, but your Dad would be so proud of what you’ve done with your life, his shop, and the great marriage you’ve created. I hope to meet you someday man.

I've totally enjoyed all the segments of the vice build. How you would do the machining of the internal stationary jaw was a head scratcher for me and it was more involved than I would have imagined a few episodes prior. The satisfaction I could see on your face was the pay off. I imagine the fitment is better than the fireball manufactured vice and I'm saying that as a HUGE fan of Jason and his products. Congrats!

You're so proud of your work. You should be. I love it.

Thank you for personally machining to the best tolerance perhaps the most ultimate large bench vise in the world!

Well done!! Great video series and excellent vise! Thanks for sharing!!

What a great series of videos. Can't wait to see what you decide on for the paint job!

Congrats Adam for this achievement. It was a delight to watch you in the making of this vise. I'm following you for years, never missing an episode.

that's a one of a kind Abom79 vice! great work. I had no idea how many operations would be involved in the build. Jason makes cool stuff, but it's overkill for the vast majority of people, by far. it's an incredible vise absolutely!

beautiful vice

I know the 2 videos are long, but that's more than ok. I prefer videos that comes to a conclusion and a finished product regardless of length. Each episode in this project had a conclusion. The only surprise to me is the lack of a grease film to the friction surfaces. You have a nice gift from Fireball Tools! Future modifications I am looking forward to. All the future modifications are only preference and not needed for a shop vice, but really nice to see. Thanks.